'Get into her pants' (was: Knickers)

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:48 PM +0000 11/7/09, Damien Hall wrote:
>Thus Seán: (sorry about the HTML; I'm not entirely able to decode it, so I
>haven't cleaned it all up):

That's OK.  I like the 3D underpants concept.

LH

>
>"How old is the 'pants'=3D'underpants' usage?
>
>Assuming it is WWI and before, it would give more immediacy and cogency to
>'get into her pants' from a time when women didn't wear trousers as
>regularly as they do nowadays."
>
>I agree. 'Get into her pants' is common in BrE too, so it had never even
>occurred to me that 'pants' in that phrase might mean 'trousers' and not
>'undergarments'. I suppose it depends on the side of the Atlantic where
>'Get into her pants' can be found earliest.
>
>Damien
>
>--
>Damien Hall
>
>University of York
>Department of Language and Linguistic Science
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